Hours after being handed additional charges in the investigation into his handling of classified documents, former President Donald Trump took to his social media platform to defend himself and ask, “Whatever happened to the Crooked Joe Biden Document’s case?”
Special counsel Jack Smith accused Trump Thursday evening of attempting to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago property in a new superseding indictment filed in the classified records case. The former president wasted little time pointing at his main political rival and questioning the discrepancy in how the two separate cases are being handled.
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“Whatever happened to the Crooked Joe Biden Document’s case? He had 20 times more Boxes than I did, and he wasn’t covered by the Presidential Records Act. I was!” Trump said, pointing to a familiar argument of his that legal experts have dismissed.
Biden has been under investigation by special counsel Robert Hur for his own handling of classified documents since January, but it is believed that it will likely be a while before any news on his case emerges. And while the circumstances on the holding of the documents differ in the two men’s cases, strategists believe the fact that Biden (and former Vice President Mike Pence — who was also investigated for having classified documents) returned them right away puts him in better legal standing than Trump.
The former president, unsurprisingly, does not agree.
“When it first came out that Biden had all of these Docs, many Classified, almost everyone, including those on the Left, said, ‘there goes the case against Trump.’ But they waited and waited, got failed prosecutor Deranged Jack Smith, and STRUCK – but did almost nothing on the REALLY BAD Biden Documents case, many stored in Chinatown!” Trump continued on Truth Social.
On Thursday, the Justice Department named a third defendant in Trump’s case, Carlos De Oliveria, an employee of Mar-a-Lago who was a valet before becoming a property manager at the Palm Beach, Florida, club in January 2022, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say Trump acted as the co-conspirator to try and delete the footage and also charged him with an additional Espionage Act charge.
The new charges accuse Trump of acting with De Oliveira and Trump’s other co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in trying to delete the footage.
Trump now faces 40 counts in the investigation following his June 8 arraignment in south Florida. The additional three charges carry a combined maximum of 50 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors added two new obstruction of justice charges related to the alleged attempt to delete the footage. They also added a 32nd document to the list for which Trump is facing charges of violating the Espionage Act.
Republicans were quick to cry foul over the additional charges against Trump, specifically pointing to the timing, one day after Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart” plea deal fell apart.
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The two new charges against Trump related to seeking to alter security camera footage carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison each. The charge of willfully retaining national defense secrets is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The subsequent indictment in the classified documents case comes as a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., convened on Thursday in a separate special counsel investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
